It is not exactly clear why Danielle left Hot Potato Café before its eventual closure, but it looks like she simply wanted to pursue other interests.
Fans never tune in to watch a Kitchen Nightmares episode expecting to see a restaurant that is operating smoothly. But Hot Potato Café certainly turned out to be more dysfunctional than most of the other restaurants featured on the show.
One would think that a BYOB establishment, which served only one ingredient – the humble potato –, would not leave much room for error.
But the three sisters, Claire Kathryn and Erin Keller somehow mismanaged the restaurant so badly that they had been blacklisted by the local community, and needed to bring in their untrained niece to run the kitchen.
And while Ramsay did eventually get Hot Potato Café in a somewhat organized and working condition at the end of the episode, and he even brought in a professional chef to help train the restaurant’s fan-favorite young chef, Danielle, she did eventually leave Hot Potato Café.
What happened to Danielle after Ramsay’s visit?
According to Danielle’s LinkedIn profile, she worked for this family-run business for just over four years, and left the business in June of 2009. This was just a few months before Hot Potato Café shut its doors for good.
Danielle is not very active on social media, so it is not exactly clear why she left Hot Potato Café when she did.
But given that this was just a few months after Ramsay’s visit, it is highly likely that she simply decided to pursue other options once her training with Richard Marsh ended.
The Kitchen Nightmares season 3 success rate
While Hot Potato Café may not have stayed open for long after Ramsay left Fishtown, season three turned out to be one of the most successful seasons in Kitchen Nightmares history.
In fact, there are two restaurants from this season (which originally aired between January 29 and May 21, 2010) which have remained open to this day. This gives season three an overall success rate of over 18 percent, as follows:
| Kitchen Nightmares episode | Restaurant | Status as of 2023 |
| Season 3, episode 1 | Hot Potato Cafe | Closed |
| Season 3 , episode 2 | Flamangos | Closed |
| Season 3, episode 3 | Bazzini | Closed |
| Season 3, episode 4 | Mojito | Closed |
| Season 3, episode 5 | Lido di Manhattan | Open |
| Season 3, episode 6 | Le Bistro | Open |
| Season 3, episode 7 | Casa Roma | Closed |
| Season 3, episode 8 | Mama Rita’s | Closed |
| Season 3, episode 9 | Anna Vincenzo’s | Closed |
| Season 3, episode 11 | Fleming | Closed |
| Season 3, episode 12 | Sushi-Ko | Closed |
What happened after Hot Potato Café’s Kitchen Nightmares intervention?
While a poor review may have been what started Hot Potato Cafe’s downward spiral to begin with, it seems as though this was not what ultimately led to the restaurant’s downfall.
Hot Potato Café’s reviews definitely improved after Ramsay’s visit and besides for the infamous “Spuddy Hell” to “Potato-Riffic” upgrade, the restaurant also maintained an above-average 3.5 out of 5-star rating on Yelp before its closure in August 2010.
The restaurant also had its entire interior and menu redesigned during Ramsay’s visit, which likely explains why Claire (one of Hot Potato Café’s owners) claimed that ““Ramsay had more energy than anyone I’ve ever seen” after the fact.
What happened to Claire, Kathryn and Erin?
Hot Potato Café is certainly not the first restaurant in the Kitchen Nightmares franchise to be headed up by a slightly dysfunctional family.
But there is no denying that Claire and Kathryn and their sister-in-law, Erin have earned a special place in the hearts of many Kitchen Nightmares fans.
However, staying off social media seems to be something that runs in the family at Hot Potato Café, as none of this restaurant’s former owners seem to have any real social media presence.
As a result, there has really not been any update about Claire, Kathryn and Erin since the restaurant closed all those years ago.
What Danielle is doing now
It seems like Danielle’s life did not slow down at all after she left Hot Potato Café.
In fact, she seemingly balanced her nursing studies with several part-time jobs, including being a social consultant at a company called In the Weedz Consulting; a bartender at a bar named Molly Malloy’s and later at a bar named Tir Na Nog Bar & Grill, where she worked until 2018.
Currently, Danielle seemingly works as a Float Pool Registered Nurse at one of the Thomas Jefferson University Hospitals, where she splits her time between the care of multiple patients in different units.
According to her LinkedIn page, she also has some experience in long-term rehabilitative geriatric care.
